In prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,624, there is disclosed a method of removing pesticides from fruits by evaporating the pesticides under steam and extracting the vapor. This method has the disadvantage of damaging the freshness of the fruit.
It is evident that spraying substantial amounts of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides is required to prevent drastic reduction in fruit and vegetables yields as a result of damage inflicted on trees, plants, fruit and vegetables by insects, worms, fungi, viruses, bacteria etc. At the same time, there is increasing public awareness of the cumulative health damage caused by the practically unavoidable regular consumption of minute residues of toxic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, as well as microbiological contaminants.
It is also becoming increasingly evident to the public that the everyday usage of toxic agents will only increase, and that new, more active poisonous agents are being introduced daily to fight insects and microbiological contaminants which become immune to the existing products. Moreover, the decreasing availability of water will increase the usage of secondary, less clean water sources for irrigation, adding an additional source of chemical and biological contamination.
The only means commonly available to clean and wash away all existing contamination from fruit and vegetables with the aid of detergents and disinfectants is by hand washing at the domestic level, and by submerging, stirring and washing at the industrial or public kitchen level. Extensive tests have shown that both methods are inefficient in removing physical, biological and chemical contaminants to a satisfactory degree, especially from small fruit like grapes or from leafy vegetables.
Very often people use only tap water to wash fruit or vegetables because of the effort and time required for a thorough cleaning. Using detergents or chemicals entails using gloves to protect the hands from the cumulative damage inflicted on the skin by exposure to these detergents and disinfectants.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a device for easy and effective cleaning of fruits and vegetables.